Lifers with Christina Farr Dr. Ari Hoffman on escaping the era of pagers and eFaxes
Feb 24, 2026
Dr. Ari Hoffman, a physician and product-focused clinical leader at Collective Health, brings clinical insight and health-tech strategy. He talks about why legacy tools like pagers and faxes persist. He explores interoperability gaps, HIPAA-versus-mobile tradeoffs, the role of TPAs, and where APIs and better data could change healthcare's plumbing.
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UCSF Finally Ditching Pagers Shows Tech Lag
- Ari Hoffman still taught at UCSF when they only recently got rid of pagers, highlighting healthcare's slow tech adoption.
- He jokes drug dealers moved on before hospitals, illustrating how far behind hospitals are compared with consumer tech.
HIPAA Versus Mobile Platform Rules Creates Product Friction
- HIPAA and platform rules (like Apple's data deletion) create real product tradeoffs that mobile teams must resolve.
- Ari describes reconciling HIPAA retention with Apple deletion requirements during mobile registration work.
Regulatory Plumbing Acts As A Double Edged Moat
- Healthcare's regulatory and legacy complexity functions as a moat that both protects incumbents and raises costs.
- Ari points to X-12/EDI rules and clearinghouses as examples of embedded, law-backed complexity.